Hello!


OBTC 1909

OBTC 1909

Well-Known Member
Hello all! My name is Ken and I live in southern Illinois. My username is an ode to a small railroad called the Oil Belt Traction Company that started in my county back in 1909. It was unsuccessful, but it still has a place in my heart for originating right here.

I currently do not have a train layout, but still want to get back in the hobby. I own HO scale stuff, but now wishing I'd gone with N scale due to my lack of space. I'm mostly interested in the Oil Belt, Illinois Central/Gulf, Indiana Rail Road, Penn Central and Conrail since they all have (Indiana currently does) served my home area.

I started a model railroad club in our county back about the time I retired and it's doing very well. I love all things trains and look forward to being a part of the community here.
Ken
 
Hey Ken!
The OBTC sounds like something begging to be modelled!
Since you have some HO stuff already maybe start with a simple shelf switching layout and see where it leads.
I also started a club many moons ago that thrived for twenty some years until politics set in, a fate many succumb to.
Welcome aboard and we look forward to seeing what develops!
 
Rico said:
Hey Ken!
The OBTC sounds like something begging to be modelled!
Since you have some HO stuff already maybe start with a simple shelf switching layout and see where it leads.
I also started a club many moons ago that thrived for twenty some years until politics set in, a fate many succumb to.
Welcome aboard and we look forward to seeing what develops!
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Thanks for the welcome!
I'm thinking of building a small switching layout as soon as we get some house remodeling stuff done. I've always wanted to model the OBTC and then freelance it like it had survived and continued to present day. The NYC Egyptian line ran through my county, about 3 miles from my present home and I wanted to create a scenario where the OBTC purchased and took over a section of the Egyptian, although the Oil Belt and NYC lines both ran north/south on opposite sides of the county. Meanwhile, the Indiana Rail Road runs east/west through our county on former IC tracks and at one time the two lines were connected in Robinson, IL. I've had all kinds of grand ideas, but a small switching layout is the most likely of all for the time being.
 
santafewillie said:
Ken - A belated welcome aboard from me. I somehow missed this thread over the weekend. I had to Google the Oil Belt Traction Company; it appears to have an interesting history.
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Thanks for the welcome! The Oil Belt does have an interesting history. A friend of mine wrote a book about it (see link below). There was a lot of disagreement here in recent days over whether or not the OB was narrow or standard gauge. It interchanged with the IC and the B&O, so it made no sense to think it had been narrow gauge. I was finally able to prove it after reviewing photos of old OB paperwork and found where it declared the gauge.
I really hope to find some way to model the OB one of these days. We're just about done with our home remodeling, so I'm thinking I might set up a small layout in a spare room.

Oil Belt book
 
OBTC, also new here myself, still working on the space to start my creation, something about 13’x12’ for starters…. Is nice to have someone here in the same boat as myself, eager to start but still patiently plodding along lol… Your want to layout a little history sounds interesting, will be fun to do. Am now in Ohio, but lived the first 22 years of my life in Indiana, have to look up the OBTC to see what history there is there…
Nice to meet you, hope your railroading journey is enjoyable😉
 
Topherisme said:
OBTC, also new here myself, still working on the space to start my creation, something about 13’x12’ for starters…. Is nice to have someone here in the same boat as myself, eager to start but still patiently plodding along lol… Your want to layout a little history sounds interesting, will be fun to do. Am now in Ohio, but lived the first 22 years of my life in Indiana, have to look up the OBTC to see what history there is there…
Nice to meet you, hope your railroading journey is enjoyable😉
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Thanks, nice to meet you too! I've lived right here in Crawford County, Illinois my whole life. Currently working across the river in Indiana in a post-retirement job. I'm still trying to figure out what I can do in my very limited space, but I'd love to build a layout based on a partially historical and partially fiction version of the Oil Belt. I'm probably going to be limited to a switching layout for the time being, but maybe someday can expand.
 
2Tracks said:
Welcome Ken!
Great that you can get back to Model Railroading.
The OBTC sounds awesome to model. Did they haul logs?
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The main focus of the Oil Belt was to haul supplies, etc to the oil fields in the area. Their other main purpose was passenger service between Oblong, IL and Bridgeport, IL, roughly a 25 mile ride. Sadly, the railroad was built on the cheap and they suffered many a derailment due to poor track and roadbed. The locals at the time referred to the train as the "tri-weekly" in that it would arrive in Bridgeport on one day and then try all week to get back to Oblong LOL
 
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